The Kobo Aura ($149.99 direct) ebook reader brings some interesting new technology to the table, along with some of what made the more expensive Aura HD a winner—except now at a smaller size and a lower price point. It's not quite a Kindle killer though, thanks to a higher-than-typical list price and some software issues. If you're a Kobo fan to begin with, or if you want an ebook reader with more format and file flexibility than what Amazon offers, the Aura is a nice pick, but it comes with limitations.

Design, Screen, and ReadingThe Kobo Aura is very lightweight for an ebook reader with a touch screen. It measures 5.9 by 4.5 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs just 6.1 ounces, or more than an ounce less than the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (and even the new one, which is slightly lighter). It's clad in a grippy rubberized coating that looks sharp and is comfortable to hold for long periods at a time. The bottom edge holds a micro USB charging port and a memory card slot.

The 6-inch anti-glare display is completely flush, stretching from edge to edge without a break for the surrounding bezel. That's a first for E Ink-based ebook readers. The display features 1,014-by-758-pixel resolution, and delivers 212ppi and 16 levels of gray. Contrast is solid; it's not quite as stark as the contrast on the new Kindle Paperwhite, but fonts look crisp and clear, at least at larger sizes, and the ComfortLight edge lighting is quite bright at the maximum setting. Touch response is oddly inconsistent, though, which is the same problem I found with the more expensive Aura HD reader earlier this year; if anything, it's a little worse now, thanks to the new capacitive screen. It makes it unnecessarily tough to turn pages or select menu options reliably.

Tap the top of the screen, and a menu bar will appear with a Home button, a Brightness icon, a Battery indicator, and a Menu drop-down button. While reading, you can choose from a selection of 11 different fonts in 24 sizes, and you can also customize the ink weight and sharpness of each font. Kobo also includes a special font for dyslexic readers that weights each character a bit heavier toward the bottom. No other ebook reader on the market—or even app on a tablet—matches this level of flexibility.

Kobo Reading Life, as before, integrates social networking into your reading, and turns it into a bit of a game, complete with achievements. The Beyond the Book feature works similarly to Kindle's X-Ray, in that it lets you bring up character and concept information from a book, but it's not as robust yet. Both of these are fun or features to ignore, depending on your interest level.

You get a 1GHz Freescale processor, which is fast for an ebook reader, although the Aura only just matches last year's Kindle Paperwhite in performance; the new Kindle Paperwhite is considerably snappier in its responses, at least as far as we could tell in our initial hands on. Another quirk: The Aura didn't always refresh the page fully in my tests. Reading was generally okay, but I saw it the most when looking at book covers and cycling through menus. There was also a faint black border visible around the page, and while text looked fine, contrast wasn't as good with images. The ghosting effect is odd, considering how many generations of displays Kobo has produced; this sort of thing should have been eliminated by now.

Ecosystem, Other Features, and ConclusionsThe Kobo Store contains more than three million books now, and it has more curated lists to help you find books than it did before. New to the store are Kobo Collections, which group books together along a theme; it's a great idea that we hope to see the company continue to expand over time. Unfortunately, there are still no magazines or newspaper subscriptions available. Most New York Times bestsellers and older, more esoteric books I looked for were available, although the Kobo Store doesn't seem to run nearly as many big sales.

For shopping, there's no 3G model, which is probably okay given the relatively low consumer interest in that feature; the Aura only supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi networks. The Aura reads EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and RTF files, supports Adobe DRM, and works with the comic book formats CBZ and CBR, all of which make finding new things to read pretty easy. There are Kobo apps available for Mac, PC, Apple, Android, BlackBerry 10, and related tablets, so you can pick up where you left off on most devices without a problem. In comparison, the Kindle has more apps, including a dedicated cloud reader, plus Windows 8 and Android Tablet versions, but the Kindle lacks EPUB support, which limits its flexibility.

The Aura comes with 4GB of onboard storage, which is plenty, and also has that all-important microSD card slot the Kindle Paperwhite lacks. The slot supports 32GB cards, and should give you plenty of room for larger PDFs and other data. Kobo says the reader lasts for about two months on a full battery charge, based on reading 30 minutes per day, which is in line with competing models. There's no AC adapter included, which is the same as with the Aura HD; you only get a USB cable for charging.

Unlike Sony, which still lacks an E Ink-based reader that works in a dark room, Kobo has two edge-lit readers now; both are highly customizable and nicely finished. But neither Kobo reader doesn't look set to unseat Amazon's grip on the ebook reader market, though. Amazon simply has a more fleshed out ecosystem from start to finish, and its ebook readers cost less and are easier to operate. And there's the inertia problem; once you've bought books in one format, the last thing you want to do is buy an ebook reader that doesn't work with that format. The Kobo doesn't read protected Kindle or Nook purchases.

If that doesn't bother you, and you can spring for a slightly more expensive reader, the Aura is a solid option. The Aura HD adds a larger, higher-resolution screen that's better for reading magazines, equations, and other graphically intensive data, but it's a heavier ebook reader and costs as much as a color tablet. Otherwise, the Kindle Paperwhite remains our Editors' Choice for E Ink-based ebook readers, thanks to its superior ecosystem, touch-screen response, and smoother OS, even though its fonts aren't as customizable—and it's really only $10 less than the Kobo Aura, as the $30-less version includes occasional ads. The aging Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight costs just $99 now, which is $50 less than the Kobo Aura and a great deal. But its edge lighting is much dimmer and more uneven, and it's a little clunky to use in comparison.

Jamie Lendino is the managing editor for consumer electronics and mobile at PCMag.com and has written for the site and print magazine since 2005. Previously, Jamie was the Editor In Chief of Smart Device Central,...

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